"You just say so and I'll start packing."
"Carol, what would Mom and Dad say?"
"They'd shit. Especially your mother. She's the hit of her bridge club now, with you the blossoming model of today. Your brother would take it okay, I think. I mean he always seems to give you a chance and tries to understand."
Jerri lit a cigarette. "I don't know, Dave and I have never been close. He may be on my parents' side. Especially now that he's married to a girl Mom absolutely adores."
"SO WHAT? Shit! So who cares what anyone thinks? Hell with your parents, your brother, your agent, the whole damn thing. So you're a big model. Where's it brought you? To happiness? To the land of riches and good times?"
"I'm rich, that's for sure. Happy, no!"
"You're miserable! You've been miserable every minute since we moved in here and you started this whole game. Christ, Jerri, how can you take it any longer?"
Jerri jumped up, grabbed the phone, and dialed a number. She stood there in silence until someone finally answered.
"Ralph? Jerri. I don't care what time it is, you just listen to me. I'm walking out. Now, tonight, SHUT UP! Listen to me, it's.over. You can take the entire modeling business and all the pressures and phony people and shove them up your ass. "She slammed the receiver down.
Carol sat in shock, staring at her roommate. "I never thought you'd do it," she said, smiling. Jerri started to laugh and fell to the couch, into Carol's arms. They laughed together until the phone rang.
Carol answered. "Hello? Jerri? No she just left. For Alaska. 'Bye, Ralph."
Jerri giggled and looked up at Carol. "We've got some fast planning to do…"
It took them only four days to get out of New York City. Jerri sublet the apartment, sold her furniture to the new tenant, barred her door to Ralph, her agent, and various other callers. She told her parents none of her plans and then vanished from the city of New York.
"Oh, wow, I love it!" Jerri said, looking at the ranch from the side of the surrounding hill.
"It's great!" Carol added, gazing over the lush green little canyon.
They were looking at a ranch that was being offered for sale. It consisted of a large main house, a barn, acres of farmland, trees and a small river running from the mountains. It was located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico-near Taos, where many other" drop-outs" or" hippies" were living in peace and harmony under clear skies.
"Come on, Carol, let's get back to the real estate office and buy it," Jerri said, turning to walk back up the hill.
Two hours later, after startling the real estate agent by writing a personal check in the full amount for the ranch, Jerri emerged from the office with the deed in her hand. The ranch was hers.
Jerri and Carol stopped at a small shopping center in Santa Fe, and after buying supplies, food, furniture and such necessary items, they were loading the station wagon Jerri had bought before leaving New York. As Jerri carried a large bag of groceries to the wagon, someone stopped her.
"Hey, let me help," the masculine voice said. Jerri turned around to find a tall, smiling hunk of manhood offering his aid.
"Great," she said, handing him the bag. She watched as the boy set the bag in the open tailgate. He was in his twenties and had a dark beard and moustache. His hair was lighter, bleached a bit from the hot Southwestern sun, and he had eyes almost as green as Jerri's.
"Haven't seen you before," the boy said, turning to Jerri. He was dressed in sandals and tight faded blue jeans. Jerri's eyes looked down his body. She noticed the bulge at the right side of his zipper. A slight feeling of excitement raced through her. She was horny after-not having had sex for some three weeks.
"We just got in," she said, smiling. "I'm Jerri and my friend Carol is inside the store. We just bought a ranch up in Snow Canyon."
"You're kidding? Snow Canyon's the most beautiful spot around here. That's really far out"
"What's your name?" Jerri asked.
"Russell. Hey, you know something, I was staying up at the house on the ranch till just a few days ago. It was deserted and I just crashed there for a while, till the real estate agent found me and tossed me off."
"Where are you living now?"
"Well, I'm staying with some friends up on Canon Road, but I think I'm wearing out my welcome."
Jerri thought for a moment. She always had been pretty good at sizing up people at the first meeting. She liked Russell, and more than that she trusted him.
"How'd you like to come up and live on the ranch with us? We really need a man around. Carol's a great cook."
Russell looked at her with amazement. He had noticed Jerri when she first entered the store. He had immediately been taken by her beauty and knew then he wanted to make love to her. Now she was offering him a place to live-with her!
"Wow! Hell, yes! I've been wondering what I was going to do. I can't believe it…"
"Hi!" Carol said, joining them. Russell took the groceries from her arms and set them in the car.
"Carol, this is Russell. He's going to be our farmhand! I just asked him to come live with us."
Carol looked at Jerri for a moment, surprised. Then she turned to Russell and smiled. "It's so nice to have a man around the house!" she joked.
Carol drove the station wagon back to Snow Canyon. Jerri sat between her roommate and Russell. They talked about fixing up the ranch, living together. No one asked questions about the past. They were embarking on a new life now, a new life style, and the past was unimportant. The only important fact was that they were THERE and they would now be three people living and hopefully loving together.
Russell pointed out the names of different kinds of trees as they drove down the highway, and then told them where various roads went as they crossed several dirt roads along the way. Finally, as the station wagon came within sight of high snow-capped mountains, Carol turned down a little dirt road that led down into Snow Canyon and their ranch.
The car bounced along over the rocks and sand, and Russell's leg rubbed against Jerri. She grabbed his thigh when the car hit a gully, and then left her hand there. Russell felt a surge of excitement in his loins resulting from the girl's touch.
Soon Carol drove the car up the drive to the large ranch house and parked in front of the main door. They got out and grabbed the groceries and supplies and headed up the steps to the little porch.
Jerri opened the front door. "Well, we're home," she said, entering.
The interior of the house was done with warmth and taste. There were chairs made of hemp with huge flowered cushions. A fireplace sat at the end of the living room. The kitchen was old, but well equipped. The bedrooms-four of them-were comfortable and large.
Russell tit a fire-it was cool in the canyon when the sun was gone, and it was almost night now-and Carol cooked omelets as Jerri plunked out tunes on the old piano in the living room.
"Not bad, not bad," Russell said, as Jerri finished her version of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.
"I took lessons when I was a kid," she said, walking toward him," but it's going to take some time before I can get both hands working again, you know?"
"Yup," Russell said, looking up to her from the floor in front of the fire.
Jerri sat down. She looked into Russell's eyes for a moment and then their faces met in a long, gentle kiss. Russell's tongue lightly brushed over.Tern's soft lips. His beard tickled her chin. They moved apart and seemed to talk to each other with their eyes. They knew they liked each other, they knew they wanted each other, and they also knew they would have to wait till Carol had gone to bed.
Jerri reached out and placed her hand on Russell's thigh again. He brought his own hand to hers and pressed it to his leg, sliding it up until it rested directly on his cock. Jerri it growing stiff beneath the faded jeans. She looked at his face without glancing to his thigh. She felt the large penis getting hard beneath her touch and her eyes seemed to glow in front of the fire as Russell stared into them.